On January 12, the day she launched her initial assault on Mikaeel, she searched: “Get rid of bruises – wikihow.”

It emerged yesterday that Mikaeel had been in foster care twice, once because social services were concerned he had been left alone at home.

But he returned to his mother’s care in August last year - just five months before she killed him.

Fife Council announced yesterday that a serious case review was being held to determine if more could have been done to save Mikaeel.

Prosecutors accepted yesterday that Adekoya’s attacks on her son fell short of the wicked recklessness required for murder in law.

The crime of culpable homicide has a maximum sentence of life in prison, which is mandatory for murder. But in practice, sentences vary widely.

Adekoya was remanded in custody until sentencing on August 25.

Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, said that on January 12, Adekoya had taken Mikaeel and his twin sister Ashika out with a friend for a meal in a Nando’s restaurant.

Prentice said Mikaeel had “misbehaved in a minor manner” and, in his mother’s opinion, he had overeaten.

When they got home, he vomited in his bedroom as he was getting changed to go to bed.

The prosecutor said: “The accused lost her temper and both smacked him and struck him on the body with her clenched fist.”

Mikaeel was put to bed but was sick again and she hit him on the head and body with an open hand and a fist. The little boy was changed again and put to bed.

The child was sick a third time and Adekoya lost her temper once more and dragged him through to the bathroom, clutching his upper arms.

She showered him in the bath and beat him heavily on his back with her hand and fist as he lay over the edge of the bath.

Prentice said: “It is likely that the internal damage was inflicted during this last beating, since the resultant bruising to the back is extensive and indicates the use of more than moderate force in several blows.”

Mikaeel was put back to bed and in the morning Adekoya saw obvious bruising on his arms and body. He was sick again and was sent back upstairs to change.

As he walked away from his mother, she hit him on his already injured back with the heel and flat of her hand.

She kept him at home from nursery partly because of the bruising and because he had vomited again.

Prentice said: “Through the persistent vomiting it was clear that he was unwell. The accused knew she should take him to see a doctor but because of the bruising she did not.”

On the morning of January 15, a friend phoned to set up a meeting with Adekoya.

She said they could “if wee spicy heid (which Adekoya called Mikaeel in reference to his spiky hair because she could not pronounce the word spiky) doesn’t throw a tantrum about going to nursery”.

The truth, said Prentice, was that Mikaeel’s condition had worsened and he had died in the night.

The prosecutor said: “The accused had subjected Mikaeel to a severe beating by punching him and causing him to strike a hard surface such as the edge of the bath.

“He would have been in significant pain but was put to bed.

“As will be apparent from the pathology, the pain would have increased significantly while Mikaeel became dangerously ill and finally died as a result of the injuries inflicted upon him.”

On January 15, Adekoya drove to Fife and dumped the suitcase in which she had put her son’s body at the rear of her sister’s house in Kirkcaldy, her own former home.

She hid it under a bush and tried to conceal it with bushes before ringing 999 to report her son missing. She claimed Mikaeel had got out of bed, climbed on a stool, unlocked the front door of the family flat and left and that he was a missing person.

Adekoya, who enjoyed an active social life in Edinburgh and mixed with known drug dealers, spoke to police several times while the hunt for Mikaeel was going on.

It was only on her third interview that she cracked and admitted to police that her son was dead.

Adekoya broke down and told the officers: “It was an accident. I panicked. I am going to go to the jail.”

Police found the body and she was detained and charged with murdering Mikaeel and trying to cover up his death.

The boy was found to have more than 40 separate injuries and died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen.

He also suffered peritonitis which was caused by an injury to the back of the bowel which ruptured.

Prentice said: “Although peritonitis presents a danger to life, death can be prevented with early medical intervention.

“If medical assistance had been called for, death might not have resulted.”

The prosecutor also told the court Mikaeel had been a healthy, happy little boy. He added: “While he was subject to social work
involvement, this had ceased by the time of his death.”

Announcing their joint review with Edinburgh Council and other agencies, Fife child protection committee chairman John Myles said: “The review will be led independently and will take place in two phases.

“The first will look at information available from files, records, and policies and
procedures that were in place before Mikaeel’s death.

“Work on this phase has already started.

“Phase two will take into account any new information that has come to light during the criminal proceedings and will involve interviews with relevant staff.

“We are aiming to announce the findings by December.”

In court, Brian McConnachie QC, for Adekoya, said: “She is not a monster. It appears she is basically a young mother with a number of underlying problems.”

The court heard she had mental health problems, including depression.

And she threatened to commit suicide after Mikaeel’s father, Zahid Saeed, who had a long-term partner, told her their affair had to end.

McConnachie said: “Tragedy is a word which is overused in these courts but it would be reasonable to say that this truly is a tragic case, above all for Mikaeel Kular and his loss of life at such an early age.”

He said it had also been “an extremely difficult time” for the killer’s family.

They had to come to terms with the grief of losing a grandson and nephew and with the fact it was Adekoya who caused the death.

The defence counsel added that Adekoya had behaved “in a manner she had never acted in the past towards Mikaeel or any of her other children”.

And he went on: “This is not the kind of case that the courts are often faced with where death is the culmination of years of abuse towards a child.”

He said that Adekoya’s actions after the death were “panic rather than anything else”.